Revealed: The Top 10 most unusual music requests at funerals

Firestarter by The Prodigy was one of the top 10 unusual funeral songs. Pic: Katy Blackwood

Gary Welford

Published:12:00Friday 09 September 2016

A Top 10 with a difference has been revealed - of the most unusual music requests made for funerals.

The list includes rock songs such as Highway to Hell and Another One Bites The Dust, disco-era classics Burn Baby Burn and Celebration, and even TV’s Benny Hill theme tune.

Popular music has in recent years become a common feature at funerals with traditional hymns like The Lord is My Shepherd and classical pieces by the likes of Elgar and Vivaldi being joined by more modern tunes like My Way and Angels in the UK’s churches.

Almost 200 funeral directors were asked about any unusual trends and occurrences they’d encountered during the course of their work.

The Top 10 most-requested unusual funeral songs were:

1. Celebration – Kool and the Gang

2. Firestarter – The Prodigy

3. Highway to Hell – AC/DC

4. Another One Bites the Dust – Queen

5. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – Monty Python

6. Burn Baby Burn (Disco Inferno) – The Trammps

7. Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen

8. Benny Hill Theme Tune

9. Teletubbies Theme Tune

10. Deal or No Deal Theme Tune

Other popular requests which failed to make the top 10, included Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire, Way Down by Elvis Presley and Ding, Dong The Witch is Dead from the film The Wizard of Oz.

Funeral directors have also seen a rise in family members opting to sing a loved one’s favourite song, with 47 per cent choosing that rather than deliver a traditional eulogy.

Paul Wilcox, chief executive of Wilcox Limousines, the UK’s leading funeral vehicle coachbuilder, which carried out the survey, said: “There’s a great deal of humour attached to the songs on the list.

“There is a wicked irony at play with some of these choices. Often at times, the music selected for a funeral is sombre, but some people choose a song that they think captures the personality of the deceased and their sense of humour, because that’s how they want their families and loved ones to remember them.”